Here's the thing about brainstorming in public: Sometimes you make a revelatory statement that sends heads nodding and frames every resulting conversation on a topic.

Other times, what goes from brain to mouth and out into the public sphere invites waves of scorn and derision back upon you.

Judging by public reaction, an idea to partially fund construction of a railroad overpass at a realigned intersection of Lemay Avenue and Vine Drive in north Fort Collins falls into the latter category.

Nearly 200 Coloradoan readers have commented on stories and social media posts about the proposal. Let's just say that many of the comments have not been kind.

We at the Coloradoan Editorial Board don't want to penalize our city leaders for an open and honest exchange of ideas. But we just can't see a future where tolling any street in a city of 170,000 residents makes sense.

We encourage the City Council and staff to ditch the toll talk and focus on other avenues available to fund this potentially congestion-calming project. If making the intersection of Vine and Lemay more passable is a real priority in Fort Collins, dipping into city reserves or issuing debt are better options.

Here's why:

City staff — the experts on developing public infrastructure — don't support tolling. Reasons why include that the limited scale of the overpass would make the project the smallest stretch of tollway in the state. That's not a precedent we think Fort Collins should set.

Residents we've heard from don't support tolling. One Coloradoan.com reader said of the proposal: "This idea will solve the congestion problem at Lemay (and) Vine. With a toll in place, I for one will never pass through it again." That was one of the more measured reactions.

The numbers don't support tolling. Sure, the intersection of Lemay and Vine can be a mess. But even during the peak 4:30-5:30 p.m. traffic hour, city traffic engineers observed 2,152 vehicles pass through the intersection on May 24, 2016, the most recent reporting date.

That's a third of the traffic volume experienced by Fort Collins' busiest intersections. The crossings of Timberline and Harmony roads, and College Avenue intersections with Prospect, Drake, Horsetooth and Harmony roads all saw more than 6,000 vehicles pass through between 4:30-5:30 p.m. during most recent measurements.

Those intersections are certainly built to handle more traffic than Lemay and Vine, which saw its evening rush-hour traffic increase nearly 17 percent between 2010 and 2016 measurements.

But even if peak-hour traffic was sustained for five hours each day, it would take more than five years of hypothetical 50-cent per-trip fees to cover the additional $10 million needed for the project, not including costs associated with running a toll system.

Residents have said they'd avoid the toll road regardless of how much it costs, which would put additional pressure on College Avenue and Timberline Road to handle traffic headed to and from the city's developing northeast corner.

If building a Lemay Avenue overpass of the switching yard and Vine is a priority in the coming years, city leaders are already behind the planning 8-ball.

The project didn't make the cut for funding through the 2015 extension of the city's quarter-cent capital improvement sales tax, which will provide roughly $83 million over 10 years for public improvements. And while realigning Lemay is part of the city's long-range transportation plan, this project will remain on the horizon until a funding source is identified.

We don't pretend to be experts in city finance or public infrastructure planning. But we know when it's time to cut bait on a bad idea.

Let's keep driving toward a solution to fix Lemay and Vine while leaving talk of tolls in the rear-view mirror.

This is the viewpoint of the Coloradoan Editorial Board, made up of six community members and Coloradoan News Director Eric Larsen and Watchdog Coach Rebecca Powell. The board meets weekly to set the topic and direction of the Coloradoan's Sunday editorials. News reporters are not involved in the editorial board process.

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Evening traffic waits to proceed northbound on Lemay Avenue as a train crosses Vine Drive in October. The city of Fort Collins is considering whether to build an overpass as part of a road realignment to ease congestion.(Photo: Austin Humphreys/The Coloradoan)